Election Day is November 3, and despite pivotal races occurring across the country, the weather simply doesn’t care about election schedules. In fact, this Election Day has forecasts suggesting significant portions of the central United States could experience heavy rainfall, gusty winds, and thunderstorms. The season is unpredictable, but thankfully election offices are prepared with contingency plans that help them respond to weather related disruptions and to maintain voting operations.
Election officials are planners by nature. A polling place loses power? There’s a plan for that. A critical piece of equipment stops working? There’s a backup. Plans B, C, and D are part of the job, and that kind of thinking becomes particularly important when severe weather enters the forecast.
Weather may impact election operations in multiple ways, with some being more obvious than others. Heavy rain can lead to flooding, power outages, and even damage to polling places and other facilities. There are numerous indirect impacts to voting and operations as well; inclement weather can make roads difficult to drive on or inaccessible completely. This not only affects voters, but also staff and poll workers. If roads are blocked due to downed power lines, trees, car accidents, or flooding, people and supplies might stop moving.
So while some heavy rain may seem like a minor inconvenience, its effects can create significant challenges, such as pausing ballot movement or lowering staffing levels. Fortunately, the emergency preparedness, contingency, and response plans that election officials and emergency managers develop when the skies are blue help them respond to these disruptions and keep operations moving (even if people need to bring umbrellas).
Contingency planning is already part of election administration, and it extends well beyond weather events. Election officials are accustomed to developing backup plans for their backup plans, recognizing that even the most carefully designed operation can encounter unexpected challenges. Rather than trying to anticipate every possible cause of a disruption, they plan for the consequences. A power outage, equipment failure, or severe storm might have very different causes, but each can create similar operational challenges. Planning around those consequences gives election officials the flexibility to adapt when Plan A isn’t an option.
A Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) demonstrates this concept. A power outage would require backup equipment or alternate procedures, such as using pen and paper. Flooded polling places may require relocation to alternate sites and the use of backup equipment and resources. Alternate sites with operating capabilities and capacities need to be decided ahead of time with proper transportation, notification, and coordination in mind. The goal of the COOP in elections is to maintain voter access, protect ballots and other sensitive equipment, and minimize disruptions for election officials.
Thankfully, election officials don’t work alone. Established relationships with local emergency management, public works, utility providers, communications personnel, and law enforcement support preparedness and response. Emergency managers can provide situational awareness, public works can assess roadway accessibility, and utility providers can provide updates on power restoration. This coordination helps election officials make informed decisions and communicate important changes to the public when necessary.
For more information on election preparedness, the CORE Playbook also highlights how election officials and emergency managers can work together to strengthen election resilience, even when Election Day may bring inches of rain.
Through our work with the Partnership for Elections and Emergency Response (PEER), we’ve consistently been impressed by the thought and care election officials put into emergency preparedness and contingency planning. Election officials can’t control the weather, but we’ve seen firsthand how seriously they take preparing for what it might bring. Whether Election Day brings sunshine, thunderstorms, or something in between, election officials and their community partners have spent months preparing Plans A, B, C, and D to help keep voting accessible and operations moving. If anything, our work has made us more confident than ever in their ability to weather whatever storms come their way, both literally and figuratively.